One, Two, Three
by OzQueene
Summary: After a narrow escape - after being brought to the very edge of the end - Wheeler, Kwame and Gi try to find a way to cope.
1. prologue

**TITLE:** One, Two, Three

**RATING:** High M / R

**SUMMARY:** After a narrow escape - after being brought to the very edge of the end - Wheeler, Kwame and Gi try to find a way to cope.

**NOTES/WARNINGS:** Written for the polybigbang on livejournal. Please be aware that the purpose of this challenge was to write a story of at least 10,000 words featuring a **_poly _**relationship. This story focuses on a poly relationship between Gi, Kwame and Wheeler and, while there's no graphic sex, there are references to adult themes, violence, torture, and emotional and physical abuse.

If this doesn't sound like it's going to be your cup of tea, please leave now, rather than read it and send me abuse because I haven't written your OTP or whatever. Been there, done that, don't care to do it again. :p

* * *

._**prologue**_

Gi walked along the beach, the sky white at its edges and dangerously blue-purple above her. Thunder rumbled low and angry through the cloud. The sea was steely grey and foamless, the waves rolling restlessly against one another until they crashed to shore in salty spray.

Sometimes she thought she'd be all right – that such moments would be enough to drive out the sour fear digging its heels into the centre of her mind. Life had a way, sometimes, of organising things so that you could go on in spite of the worst.

Life on Hope Island was different to life everywhere else, though, and Gi was beginning to figure out that Hope Island didn't necessarily mean everything was going to be easier. Maybe it was harder – there wasn't as much distraction here; there was only more time to think.

She was restless, and the storm was doing nothing to ease the tension along her shoulders. The sea lacked its usual vibrancy, or tranquility, or whatever the hell Gi had been hoping to find when she'd wandered down to the shore.

She sank into the wet sand on a straight stretch of beach on the west side of the island and watched the storm rolling in over the water. She could see rain coming down in misty waves ahead, blurring the horizon as it moved toward her.

When the rain eventually reached her, it found her crying, and it washed the tears from her cheeks.

* * *

"You will fall ill if you stay out in the rain like that."

Gi looked at Kwame through her lashes, too lazy to fully open her eyes. His fingers were nested in her hair, which was still slightly damp, his thumb soothing a pattern against her temple.

"Rain doesn't just magically make you ill," she said quietly. "Viruses make you ill."

Kwame just smiled.

"Where's Wheeler?" Gi asked eventually, lulled to near-sleep by the quiet murmuring of the television and Kwame's fingers stirring slowly through her hair.

"Asleep."

"Me too," she whispered.

Kwame chuckled, and it was such a rare, lovely sound, she found herself smiling.

* * *

Sometimes they went to sleep separately. Gi was usually nestled against someone's back or chest or side, but sometimes _someone_ retired to bed alone, desperate to prove the shadows of the night could be easily beaten.

But dawn always found the three of them inside the same blanket, midnight hours too tense and long to battle through without support from others.

Gi sometimes wondered if she should have followed Linka and Ma-Ti and simply gone home, to old familiarities and securities. But home didn't hold the same comforts for her as it did for Linka and Ma-Ti. She wasn't particularly close to her parents – not in an emotional sense, anyway. They were nearer to academic peers than anything else.

As a child, Gi had usually been left to her own devices. Her parents were often more focused on their work than on their daughter, and while she had never felt a lack of love from either of them, she was conscious of a divide between them that left her feeling like a stranger; it was awkward and tense when she came to needing something from them.

So she had stayed with Wheeler and Kwame, who both knew what it was like to have an uncomfortable family, or no family at all. The three of them clung together in the aftermath of a nightmare and tried to build something from fragments of their former selves in an isolated, unknown, undiscovered corner of the world.

* * *

Gaia was there, and yet she was not. Sometimes Gi saw her, but she wasn't the same. Fury and fear were still attached to her, and Gi felt she had lost the closest thing to a mother she'd had in a long time.

Losing Gaia was almost harder than losing Linka.

* * *

_Her heart flutters madly in her chest. She glances to the exit, but the thought of escape never anchors itself fully in her mind; she knows it is futile._

_She has heard one of them screaming – one of the boys, she thinks, though it sounded so inhuman and so unlike any of them she can't be sure._

_It was terrifying. It has scared her more than anything else that has happened in here – that one scream has sent chills through her bones that simply won't leave, and she's still trembling._

_Her ring is gone, taken, but even if she still had it, she thinks she'd be too terrified to remember how to use it._

_She begs, but they advance anyway, and she knows she's about to find out exactly why her friends have been screaming in the other cells._

* * *

Gi breathed out, her breath hot and wet in the heavy humidity of the night. Sweat clung to her skin and the sheets were tangled around her legs. Wheeler's hand cupped her elbow and Kwame's arm sat heavy and warm over her waist.

"You okay?" Wheeler's voice was quiet but startling in the thick darkness of the night.

Gi swiped a tear away with the back of her hand, still feeling breathless. The nightmare hung in ragged ribbons at the corners of her mind, and she could feel her wrists aching with injuries that had since faded from visual memory.

She sniffed, loudly, embarrassed about waking in such distress, and Wheeler pushed himself closer to her, ignoring the sticky humidity of the night that brought sweat to their skin and made breathing a chore.

Gi closed her eyes, her body snug and hot between two others, and she tried to forget.


	2. chapter one

**NOTES/WARNINGS:** I think this is the worst chapter in terms of violence/angst/discomfort/etc. And it's more than likely I've rated too high, but please, be prepared if that stuff bothers you. :)

This chapter actually has artwork, by the lovely sailorptah on livejournal! I will eventually link to it in my profile, but as FFN has disabled all links, I can't show anyone just yet. :( Keep an eye on my profile and/or on my livejournal writing community, sweetcarousel. I'll link it as soon as I can. :)

And thank you, thank you, thank you for those lovely reviews!

* * *

**.chapter one**

Gi wasn't sure what to do. She wasn't sure how she should _feel_.

At first she was suitably afraid, though it wasn't hard to wrestle that feeling back behind a practical curtain of assertiveness and logic. She tried to shake the blindfold off, and she tugged at the bindings holding her to the chair, but she was sure she couldn't get out without assistance from someone else.

And so she waited. She was impatient – she seemed to have been there a long time, and as she sat and tried to think about how long it had been exactly, she realised she wasn't at all sure where she was. She hadn't been piloting the geo-cruiser, but she didn't think they'd been pulled _that_far off course...

She wrinkled her brow. Had they been somewhere over the middle east? Had they flown with the wind with them – were they somewhere in Europe now? Hadn't Kwame mentioned something about being pulled to the south? Did that mean they were in northern Africa now?

The geo-cruiser didn't travel like a normal aircraft. She was faster, and she flew on different flight paths and at different altitudes, and Gi suddenly realised the advantages could turn out to be disadvantages rather easily.

She cursed under her breath and called out. "Hey!" She cocked her head and listened to her voice ring against hard, square walls.

It was hot. She could feel sweat, damp against the back of her t-shirt and beneath the cups of her bra. She fidgeted in the chair and, rather stupidly, did not really begin to feel afraid again until she'd been left there so long she wet herself.

* * *

Fear changed again, this time to embarrassment and indignation.

"You can't keep me here like this!" she snapped, the moment she heard the door open. "I haven't done anything wrong! This is –"

A sharp slap across her face sent her into sudden silence. Her cheek burned and tears sprang to her eyes behind the blindfold.

She sucked in a desperate breath and fought back panic. She'd been in tight spots before – she'd spent moments trapped somewhere, convinced she was breathing her last breath – but this was different. This was dirty and silent and hot, and fear sent a trembling spike deep down into her belly.

"Could you confirm your name, please?"

The request was soft and quiet, and after the shock of the slap, it took a moment for it to register.

"What?" Gi asked weakly. She shifted uncomfortably in the chair. "My name is Gi."

"And your second name? Your family name?"

Hair stood up on the back of Gi's neck, and her skin tightened beneath a coating of sweat and dust.

"Why?" she asked warily.

She was as equally unprepared for the second slap as she had been the first. Her head snapped to the other side and her hair stuck to her damp cheek. She let out a sob of surprise and fright, and automatically tried to raise her hand to cradle the stinging skin.

"Kim," she whimpered. She blinked beneath the blindfold as though she'd be able to see the man in front of her.

His accent was British, which made her feel – if it were possible – more lost than before.

For the first time, she ran her thumb against her finger and realised her Planeteer ring was gone. Fear chilled her spine and she mentally berated herself for taking so long to realise it was missing. It was growing more and more difficult to feel any sort of bravery at all.

She listened carefully, but she couldn't hear so much as a breath from the man in front of her. She could only assume he was in front of her. Another chill ran down her spine and she shifted uncomfortably at the thought of him circling her quietly, like a shark.

_You've been swimming with sharks before_, she thought, her mind in a whirlwind of irrationality. _Sharks are okay_.

"Tell me what you are doing here." The voice hadn't changed at all – it was still coming from in front of her, and it was still level and low and quite polite, like she was meeting someone for the first time at a barbecue or somewhere.

"Well..." Her voice hitched on a dry throat, and she coughed, embarrassed and worried. "I don't know. I mean – where am I?" She blinked furiously beneath the blindfold, wishing it would be removed.

A sharp kick to the front of her chair sent her flying backward. Her head cracked against the floor and for a moment she had the urge to vomit or pass out. The darkness she was already accustomed to somehow swam in front of her, sparks of light and pain dancing across the backs of her eyelids. It took a long time for her to breathe again. By then, she realised she was alone once more.

* * *

The second time she heard the door open, she was hasty to undo any mistakes she'd somehow already made.

"Look," she began desperately, still trapped helplessly against the chair and against the floor, "I'm sorry. Really, I'm sorry, I just don't know where I am or what's going on... But if you let me up, if you untie me, I can explain everything, I swear."

She heard the soft scuff of a shoe against the floor, just beside her face, and she tensed, but rattled on nervously. "My name is Gi," she whimpered, "and I'm with the Planeteers and our aircraft was pulled off course or something – I don't know. Maybe our equipment malfunctioned. But I don't remember what happened. Maybe we crashed." She sucked in a sharp breath. "I was with four others and I don't know what happened to them. I just want to make sure they're okay..."

"Four others?"

There was a tone of surprise in the voice that sent a deep, sick feeling down to Gi's stomach. Slight emphasis on the word _four_hurried hundreds of thoughts into various streams of horror. She wondered just how many of her friends had been tied up and left in cells like hers.

She found herself praying that all of them were, because the alternative...

She blinked, her lashes scraping the blindfold. Sweat beaded on her skin. She wasn't sure _what_ the alternative was. _Had_ the geo-cruiser crashed? She racked her brain for the answer and came up with nothing. She couldn't remember. She was not sure if what she _could_remember had really happened, or if it was all a result of some fragmented, stress-induced dream of some kind. Maybe they were never off course.

Maybe they'd already landed somewhere, and they were attacked from behind. Maybe she'd suffered a concussion somehow and that was why everything was suddenly so blurred...

She flinched as another scuff from the heel of a boot on concrete sounded against her ear. She was tensed against the ropes holding her to the chair, terrified that a kick would soon be landing against the side of her face. She squirmed desperately, futilely.

"Please," she blurted suddenly, "please let me up. I'll explain everything. I'm not here to cause trouble."

There was a laugh, and then another – three or four separate sources, though much of it sounded forced and unnatural. She was suddenly hideously embarrassed about being on the floor, smelling of sweat and urine. She turned her head this way and that, trying to pin down exactly where everybody was and how many people were looking down at her like this.

"Let me up!" she said, angry this time. "You can't treat people like this! I haven't done anything wrong! Where are my friends?"

The nearest chuckle lowered itself right down to her ear, and she flinched away from the hot breath of the man with the British accent. "It is wrong of you to claim you've done nothing wrong when you don't know where you are," he said. "You have broken our rules."

Gi's heart hammered painfully in her chest. "We didn't mean to," she says desperately. "I'm sure it was just a mistake – a misunderstanding. Please let me talk to my friends."

The door slammed shut. It took a long time before she was convinced they had all left the room, and she was alone again.

_What rules_? she thought desperately. _What kind of place has rules that lead to this_?

* * *

Gi's arms and back ached. Her skin felt swollen and sore beneath the ropes holding her to the chair, and her head pounded and pulsed uncomfortably. Whenever she moved, a wave of sickness would wash over her, and she would blanch and turn her head weakly to the side, praying she'd be able to hold back the vomit. She was in desperate need of a shower – she didn't want to add any other odours to the room.

Now and then she'd call out, though her voice sounded weak in the darkness pressing against her eyelids. She called for Linka, and Kwame and Wheeler and Ma-Ti. She called for the guards, or whoever might be out there listening.

She called for water, and she clenched her fist and felt a physical ache where her ring used to sit against her skin.

* * *

"How long have I been here?" It was a dazed question, one she barely even registered. Her head swam violently as her chair was pulled upright again, and bile rose in her throat at the sudden pressure of dizziness and pain. Her throat felt sandpaper-dry.

For a long moment she was unable to realise the blindfold had been taken away. Her eyes struggled to focus. Her head pounded.

In front of her, sitting in a similar wooden chair, was a well-muscled man with short grey hair. He was watching her sharply.

Gi licked her parched lips, her eyes automatically drawn to the bottle of clear water he held in his hand.  
He smiled and tilted it slowly, letting a few drops trickle over the plastic lip and run over his fingers.

"Are you thirsty?" he asked.

Gi winced at the sound of his voice, almost expecting another slap or kick which would send pain reeling through her body. She nodded instead, closing her eyes for a moment as darkness swam at the edge of her vision.

"Why don't you tell me why you're here," the man said conversationally, "and then perhaps I'll give you a drink of this nice, clean, clear water."

Gi fought back a sob of desperation. "I don't know where I am," she said, her voice cracking. "I promise we're not here to do anything wrong. We were on our way to an environmental summit in Italy. We were flying from Mumbai..." She closed her eyes against another wave of pain, and realised how little she knew of her location. She cursed herself again and wished she'd paid more attention. She wished she'd been in the pilot's seat. She swallowed, with difficulty, as she realised she couldn't be sure that she hadn't been.

She could remember so little it terrified her.

The man didn't seem interested in anything she was saying. He sipped quietly from the bottle of water, his eyes wandering leisurely around the room they were sitting in. Behind him, the door was locked shut. There were no windows.

"Are my friends all right?" Gi asked, rather timidly. Her stomach twisted itself into knots. She ached to hear Ma-Ti's voice swimming through the air to her.

"Explain your weapons," the man said suddenly, locking eyes with her.

Gi flinched. "My what?" She shook her head, ignoring the increasing waves of nausea. "I don't have any weapons." She looked down at her bound arms, almost weeping aloud when she saw the bruised and swollen skin raised up around the ropes cutting into her.

"Then how do you explain the destruction you leave behind?" An eyebrow raised itself.

Gi swallowed and sent another desperate look of want toward the bottle of water. "Destruction?" she asked, confused. "No, no. We're the Planeteers. We – we don't bring destruction, we _stop_it. We were in Mumbai – or, well, near there. The pollution problem there, the sewage and trash and –"

The man rose so abruptly to his feet Gi cut herself off and cringed back against the chair.

"Tell me about the storms you bring," he whispered menacingly.

Gi's finger twitched and her heart sank as she realised he meant the rings. The Planeteer Rings.

"Please tell me where my friends are," she whispered. "We can explain everything."

He paced in a slow circle around her. Gi tried not to think of him as a shark.

She'd feel more comfortable with a shark.

"I will only say this once," he said after a while, still pacing around her. He kept his eyes trained toward the ceiling, as though he were constantly searching for the right words. "I intend to find out how these weapons work, one way or another. Now, you can help me figure it out..." He paused in front of her, his eyes like blue ice chips as they gazed down at her. "Or," he continued, "you can continue to plead your confusion and innocence, and suffer the consequences."

"But I _am_innocent!" Gi cried, and she couldn't help the anger seeping into her voice. "Tell me what I'm supposed to have done wrong!"

He stopped and took a sip of water. Gi's throat throbbed with thirst.

"I want you to tell me how your weapons work," he said after a moment. "I don't require much else of you. Yet."

Gi closed her eyes and let her head sag forward to her chest. "They're not weapons," she said desperately. "But they can't fall into the wrong hands. Please, if you'd just let me go and find my friends –"

"I can see this is a waste of time," he said then, coldly. He screwed the cap back onto the bottle of water and tossed it toward the corner of the room. "Perhaps I'm not using the right motivation."

This time, when he kicked her chair backward, she managed to raise her head and keep it safe from a knock against the floor.

Still, the room spun dizzily, and by the time her vision had cleared again, he had disappeared, leaving her staring up at the fluorescent tube light above her.

* * *

Gi found herself drifting in and out of sleep, despite her thirst and her uncomfortable position. Now and then she'd stir and gaze longingly at the abandoned bottle of water, lying on its side in the corner of the room.

_Water_, she thought, and her finger twitched as though she could summon liquid across the room, even without her ring. She almost smiled when she failed, as though everything was one big joke. As though everything was just a dream.

She tried again and again to remember how she ended up tied to the chair in the first place, but memories swam in and out with conjecture and headaches.

She started assuming she had been drugged, just to make sense of _something_.

But even if that answered the question of _how_, it didn't really answer the question of _why_.

She thought about the questions she'd been asked, and wondered how her ring had come to be labelled as a dangerous weapon in the first place. She wondered if the man she'd been speaking with worked for Plunder or someone she already knew.

She began to think about how the Planeteers looked from an outsider's point of view. She realised that without the full story or full understanding, it was plausible to assume the Planeteers brought destruction. After all, they were so often surrounded by it. And the rings were scary if you weren't used to them. It was natural to think of them as weapons, rather than instruments of saviour.

Gi lay on the floor, still strapped into the chair, and wondered if she'd be able to explain her innocence next time the door opened. She couldn't help but feel the answers didn't matter anyway – nobody seemed to be trying very hard to understand.

* * *

The door opened, and Gi started pleading before she could see who had joined her. Her voice broke and whispered away to nothing before she could finish her first sentence.

"Be quiet." The man who had sat with her previously bent and wrapped his fingers around the top rung of her chair, hauling it up onto its legs again.

Gi's vision went black at the edges and she retched as her head swam dizzily.

He sat in front of her again and waited quietly.

Gi swallowed with difficulty and tried to talk again. "Please," she said. "Please, I don't know why I'm here..."

His voice was cold. "You are here," he said, "because you and your friends hold weapons almost beyond the scope of imagination. How did you get them? How do they work?"

Gi blinked and twitched as a spasm of pain ran down her arms. The ropes had cut into her skin.

He held up Gi's ring. It glinted in the cold light of the cell.

Gi bit her lip and felt an ache in her chest.

"Tell me how it works."

Gi sagged in the chair. "If I tell you, will you let me and my friends go?"

She received only a thin smile in response.

"Are my friends all right?" she asked desperately.

"Answer some of my questions first."

Gi eyed him nervously. "I don't think telling you the truth will matter," she said, her voice quivering. "I don't think you'll be nicer to me after you get what you want..."

"No?" He smirked.

She swallowed with difficulty, her throat protesting each movement, each syllable. "I think you're going to kill me."

He shifted in his chair and crossed his legs. "Let's assume you're correct," he said, twirling her ring around in his palm.

Gi sagged against the ropes holding her to the chair. "You're not even going to pretend to be a nice guy?" she asked.

He laughed. "No." He slipped her ring onto his little finger and watched it gleam. "So," he said, "I suppose all we have left is the question of _how_it will end for you, hm?"

"I'm not telling you anything," Gi spat at him. "You won't get your answers after I'm dead, either."

"Oh," he said, waving his hand in an unconcerned manner, "we'll keep you around for a while longer. A year or two."

Gi's ears throbbed and she frowned at him. "A year or two?"

"As long as it takes," he said, indicating the ring on his hand. "I hope you didn't assume your death would be a quick one." He smiled and leaned back, stretching like a cat in an armchair.

Gi swallowed and looked at the floor. She felt sick, and afraid, and she didn't know what to do or how to get out.

* * *

They untied her when she was too weak to fight or stand upright. They left her with a plastic bottle of water and a sandwich wrapped in paper.

The heavy weight of food in her stomach made her feel sick, but she kept it down. She desperately wanted a shower. She found herself forced to huddle in a corner whenever she needed the bathroom. She was always terrified someone would burst into the room.

She felt dirty, and sore, and sick. She stood by the door and screamed until she was hoarse, but as far as she could tell, she was all alone.

She was beginning to doubt her friends were anywhere near her at all. She wanted to feel relieved at this – in the knowledge that they were free of the torments she was suffering – but it only increased her terror, and she began to wish, fervently, that they were with her.

Just to have someone in the cell with her - one friendly face - would make everything easier.

* * *

Gi stood with her palms and her back against the wall as instructed. She couldn't help but stand slightly hunched, tired and sore as she was. Her bones ached. Her hair hung in thin, matted ribbons around her face. Sores were weeping blood across her skin.

"The rings do not work the way you described they would."

She bit her lip. "They won't work for _you_," she said desperately. "But that's how they work, I swear..."

The man was leaning against the closed door of her cell, his arms folded across his chest. He glanced her up and down, looking irritated.

"What are they made of?" he asked.

"I've told you, I don't know." Gi trembled as he stood upright.

He didn't come toward her this time. He left, slamming the cell door behind himself.

* * *

A scream in the corridor woke Gi. She staggered to her feet, disoriented in the hard fluorescent light. Her joints rang with pain as she straightened her body.

Scuffling feet and grunts and struggles were coming from the other side of her door. She ran to it and pressed her ear against the metal. She heard a fist strike flesh.

"Ha!" a voice shouted. "Take that, asshole!"

Gi's heart leapt. "Wheeler!"

"Gi!"

There was no pause or hesitation to account for recognition – he knew her voice instantly and responded without thinking.

"Wheeler!" Gi's throat felt roar and sharp with effort as she shouted through the door. Blood welled in the welts on her arms as she lifted her fists, pounding against the cold metal. "Wheeler!"

"Gi!"

She listened hard, praying for other familiar voices, other sounds which would somehow clue her in to where her friends were and if they were all right – but there was nothing. Wheeler's presence had disappeared as quickly as it had come. Silence cramped the space of Gi's cell. There were no sounds of struggle outside.

Wheeler had disappeared, and Gi was alone once more.

* * *

Hearing Wheeler's voice had sparked a new determination within Gi. She paced her cell, stretching her sore muscles, listening for the slightest sounds from outside.

When her captor appeared again, she spoke with a bravery she hadn't felt before.

"I want to see Wheeler."

"Oh yes?" The man kicked the door closed behind him, but Gi refused to be intimidated by him this time.

"I've told you how my ring works," she said, her voice quickening as nervousness and desperation kicked in. "I heard Wheeler's voice earlier. I know he's here. I want to see him; I want to see that he's all right."

"He is dead." The man leaned against the wall and folded his arms. "And the same will happen to you, if some progress is not made this time. I am running out of patience."

Gi blinked, his words taking several seconds to sink in. "What?" She blanched and the room spun again. Her stomach heaved. "No, you –"

"I have run out of patience," her captor said again, coldly. "The rings do not work the way you have described. You have failed to tell us how you got them or how they came into being –"

"I _have_told you!" Gi cried, and she broke down, sobs tearing at her body as she realised what must have happened to Wheeler. She wondered if he was the first, or if Kwame, Linka or Ma-Ti had met the same fate.

Suddenly she didn't doubt that she'd be next.

Tears streamed down her face, but she gritted her teeth, gazing down at the floor with new determination.

"If you think," she said shakily, "that killing my friends will make me bend to you..." She glared up at him. "Go to Hell," she whispered fiercely. "I hope Gaia finds you and rips you apart."


	3. chapter two

**NOTES/WARNINGS:** Oh, this chapter is really short! I hadn't really realised until now. Thank you so much for the reviews you guys! Omg, so glad to have people reading this :) It's not my best work but it was _such_ a challenge to write, and having people comment on it so encouragingly is a lovely reward.

This chapter continues themes of injury/violence, but no worse than the previous chapter.

* * *

**.chapter two**

"Do I have to die before you help me?" Gi gazed up at the ceiling, talking to herself. Talking to _Gaia_, who, for some reason, had not shown even the faintest glimmer.

"I hate you," Gi whispered, her voice hoarse. She closed her eyes, her back flat against the hard concrete floor of her cell. "I don't understand why you're leaving me here to die."

* * *

The others were dead, she was sure. She had no idea how long she'd been locked away – long enough for her wounds to gum and scab and scar. Long enough for her hair to start falling away in clumps. Long enough for her to stop caring that she was still alive.

Her skin felt like a sheet draped loose over bone.

She had heard nothing of the other Planeteers, except for Wheeler's brief appearance outside her door. It seemed like years had passed since then.

The questions from the man in charge were always the same: How do the rings work? Where did you get them? What are they made of?

She gave him answers. Truthful answers. False answers. Whatever she thought would make him happy.

He never spoke of anything else. He never answered her questions. Sometimes he treated her with a sort of amusement – like her fear entertained him. But amusement was the closest thing to kindness she ever got.

She talked to Gaia. Threatened. Wept.

"I hate you," she said, again and again.

* * *

The door to Gi's cell swung open. She struggled to sit up, already feeling sick, already crying because of what was yet to come.

The order was short and sharp. "Out. Hurry up."

It took her a long time to understand, and even longer to get to her feet. She staggered, clutching the walls, blood running down her arms as her muscles tensed and opened wounds.

She was too weak and disoriented to take in the surrounds outside of her cell. Somewhere, very deep down, a voice told her to take notice, to look for the others. To scream for help.

Everything on the surface told her she was finally about to die.

There were stairs. She was lifted, hands under each arm, her toes grazing and bumping against each step upwards. Sunlight on her head, and the smell of dirt and grass. Her drumming heart skipped a beat with memory and desire and she wished, more than anything, to be on Hope Island again.

"I've told you the truth," she whispered. "I told you everything."

They dropped her in the dirt and she didn't dare move, in case the earth beneath her disappeared, in case the warmth of the sun against her back was taken away again.

She waited for a bullet to be put in the back of her head. She didn't _care_.

She heard footsteps again; heavy boots on the stairs and marching together across the dirt, gravel crunching under soles.

And when she opened her eyes (for some reason it suddenly seemed important to die with her eyes _open_), she saw him.

"Wheeler," she gasped.

He landed beside her, his gaze wide to the sky, bruises mottled on his jaw and blood crusted beneath his nose and down his chin.

For a split second she thought he was already dead. He was supposed to be – she had believed all this time that he was dead; that they'd shot him weeks ago. _Months_ ago.

He coughed and closed his eyes and she realised how _thin_ he was, how wasted away he'd become. His skin was thin and slack and his bones jutted from beneath, and _why_ wasn't he answering her or looking at her?

She reached for him, but he was further away than she'd realised, and her fingers merely brushed the sun-baked dust that lay between them.

She had once believed that nothing would keep her from her friends – that she would crawl through fire to save them. But her energy and her bravery had long since disappeared. She left her arm stretched toward him, but had no strength to crawl any further.

"Wheeler," she whispered again. Tears fell to the dirt.

When they brought Ma-Ti, he was sobbing. Gi barely recognised him. She started to cry when he was dropped beside her, and he took her hand and pressed his face against her arm, wailing and begging for him to forgive her – though for what, she didn't know. She rolled over and rested her back against the ground, one hand clinging to Ma-Ti as tightly as possible, the other hand stretching back in Wheeler's direction.

He lay in the dirt beside her, his breath sputtering, his eyes wide open to the sky.

When she heard Kwame and Linka hit the dirt nearby, she was too afraid to look at them. She knew they were there – she could hear Linka crying, and it didn't seem unlikely that Kwame was the second thud to land on the ground.

Gi had believed that all of her friends had been killed; that she was alone. And suddenly she wondered if it would have been better that way. The bruises on Wheeler's face and the sunken slope of his chest made her think that believing he was dead and gone was easier than the truth.

Believing he was dead had put a stop to her imagining what they were doing to him. Believing her friends were dead had allowed her to believe they had escaped what she was suffering.

She saw boots stride by and she knew at once they belonged to _him_, whoever he was. The man that seemed to have brought them all here; the man that wanted answers and explanations Gi had never been able to satisfy.

She wished he would hurry up and end it. To die under the sun beside her friends was surely better than dying slowly in a prison cell beneath the ground, alone.

_If it has to be like that_, she thought tiredly. _If I have to die, I want it to be now._

Ma-Ti gasped softly beside her, and his fingers dug sharply into Gi's thin arm. "She's coming," he whispered. "Here she comes."

* * *

_Gi's not sure if she's dreaming or awake._

The noise is terrifying – it's loud but nothing is clear; it's like everything is happening underwater.

The sky is red and brown with dust, and it's moving in a way that reminds Gi of a child's snowglobe: The dirt is all pressed up against the sky, skating against it, running down the sides, being torn apart by lightning. She can smell sulphur and burning rock and the ground is being split apart.

Above everything rises a noise like a scream. It sounds torn from the earth beneath her, and when she dares to shift her eyes from the dizzying swirls of dust and rock in the sky, she sees Gaia, her eyes black. Her face looks sharp, and long, like nothing Gi has ever seen. There's something about it that looks like glass and stone, but as Gaia moves again, the impression is lost. Her hair whirls around her in the wind. Light pours from her hands.

Gi closes her eyes and she feels herself fall.


	4. chapter three

**Note:** Whoa! I completely forgot about this. Thanks to _frankiealton_ for reminding me about it! (Ugh, sorry about FFN screwing up and posting everything out of whack.)

* * *

**.chapter three**

It took Gi a long time to drag herself back to consciousness. She forced herself to keep her eyes open, but found herself drifting anyway, her vision glazing and her mind sinking back into thoughts of sleep and exhaustion.

"Gi?" Gaia leaned over her, the ends of her dark hair brushing Gi's face. "It's all right now."

"It's not," Gi whispered.

"You're home," Gaia promised. She touched Gi's cheek gently.

"You left us," Gi accused, her voice indicating more strength than she thought she had. "You left us there to die."

"No," Gaia said desperately. She looked like she wanted to say more, but she stopped and brushed her thumb over Gi's brow. "Go to sleep," she said eventually. "You're safe. I promise."

Gi looked past her to the stone ceiling of the Crystal Chamber.

She kept her eyes open, but found she couldn't focus on anything. Trying to remember what had happened left her feeling dizzy, and she began to ache and twitch in pain.

She could hear Ma-Ti speaking softly somewhere, his sobs breaking the silence of the large, dim room.

She curled into a ball and tried to pretend that everything was all right. (Because, after all, she was home.)

She just hurt too much to truly believe it was all over.

* * *

When Gi woke again, Wheeler beside her, shivering. His eyes were wet.

The bruises on his face were gone.

Gi rolled over and felt a throb roll through her from the back of her head. She closed her eyes for a brief moment, but touched Wheeler's arm gently. "I thought you were dead," she whispered.

She wished, suddenly, that she had thought of a better opening line.

Wheeler passed his hand over his eyes. "So did I."

Gi felt stiff and sore, and her stomach was still aching and empty. "We're home," she said uselessly. Then, "What happened?"

All she can remember is the smell of rock, and the dirt in the sky and all the light pouring out of Gaia, who hadn't appeared as the soft, comforting figure Gi had longed for, but as something else entirely.

Something furious and terrifying.

Wheeler sighed softly. Tiredly. He turned his head away from Gi, and she spotted Kwame lying beside him, asleep, his face sunken and lined.

* * *

Gi couldn't sleep.

She slid out of the nest of pillows that lay heaped on the floor of the Crystal Chamber, and went to find Gaia, her feet bare and soundless on the stone floor.

Gaia appeared almost immediately, a worried look on her face.

"I can't sleep," Gi whispered helplessly.

Gaia looked at her for a long moment before she beckoned. Gi hurried after her, her throat dry and tight, her arms and legs aching. She kept checking her skin for blood, but the welts had disappeared from view. Her limbs looked more flesh than bone again. Her hair felt soft and clean.

But she _ached_. She ached _everywhere_.

Gi caught hold of Gaia and immediately started to cry. "Why didn't you come for us?" she sobbed. She burrowed against Gaia, desperate for a familiar comfort she couldn't seem to find.

"I tried," Gaia said desperately. She wrapped her arms around her Water Planeteer. "I tried, Gi, I tried. I wasn't able to get in. They'd barricaded that place against me. I couldn't show up until they wanted me to show up."

None of it made sense to Gi. She had thought Gaia could do anything.

She sobbed and huddled deeper inside the embrace. She didn't understand why she had been interrogated over the Rings and Gaia when, apparently, those who had captured the Planeteers had known the answers all along.

Gaia hugged Gi tightly, and then drew back. "You need to get some rest," she whispered, touching Gi's face gently. "Everything will be all right."

Gi couldn't help the initial feeling that came over her – that no, nothing would be all right. "How did this happen?" she asked. She wanted understanding – she wanted _answers_. "How did they get us there? I don't remember anything, Gaia..." She sniffed and rubbed her hand over her face, trying to remember details that had been so achingly clear just hours before.

The cell was starting to blur in her mind. A purple fog drifted across any images or memories she tried to dredge up.

For a moment, she was treated to memories she had never been able to get hold of - _crumpled yellow metal and smoke, shouting, sedation_ - but they disappeared as quickly as they had come, washed away to be replaced by a purple blanket Gi knew belonged to Gaia.

"Don't," Gaia soothed. "Just forget it, Gi. It's all right now." She stroked Gi's hair until Gi slumped in defeat, giving up on chasing the memories down.

"They wanted you," she said tiredly, suddenly sure.

"I know," Gaia whispered. "I'm so sorry."

Gi pulled herself out of Gaia's arms, cradling her hands close to her chest. Everything still hurt.

"Get some sleep," Gaia said gently. "I promise it will be all right, Gi. I'll make everything okay."

Gi still couldn't believe her. But she gave up on trying to figure out the answers. Gaia obviously didn't want her thinking about what had happened. She figured she should be relieved – she was sure, no matter how distant everything seemed from the Crystal Chamber, that she shouldn't _want_ to remember anything that had happened to her or or friends.

She returned to the pile of cushions and blankets Gaia had piled into the floor, and squeezed herself tiredly between Kwame and Wheeler.

* * *

"I thought you were dead." Gi blinked blearily at Wheeler, her eyes still trying to clear themselves of sleep. She had an idea she had already said this to him, but her mind still felt foggy.

She didn't know why it was so important to have him know such information, but the thought of him not knowing filled her with tension.

"I thought you were dead, too." He closed his eyes again and nodded his head closer to her, curling himself around her rather untidily, his knees and hands knocking gently against her.

"I heard you," Gi whispered. "I heard you through the door of my cell, and then they told me you were dead." She couldn't seem to keep her eyes open. She gave up and closed them again, pressing herself into the pillows she had fallen asleep on. She reached her hand out and touched Kwame's side. He was breathing deeply, still asleep.

"I don't want to talk about it," Wheeler whispered. "I don't want to remember."

Gi didn't want to talk about it either, but she found herself unable to keep her mind away from it. For some reason, she didn't want to give in to Gaia's purple safety blanket. She fought it back and was met with images of blood and screaming, and metal doors that only opened to bring pain...

The fog swept in again and, this time, Gi allowed it to cover everything.

* * *

Nobody wanted to get off the bed.

Ma-Ti shook and cried. Linka hugged him tightly, tears running down her face.

Gi had a headache, and she felt too sick to cry. She lay silently between Kwame and Wheeler, staring up at the roof of the Crystal Chamber, and she tried to pin down memories, despite the sweat it brought to her brow, despite the ache it brought to her stomach.

It was suddenly difficult to remember what had actually happened, and what had merely been a horrific nightmare.

Again, she suspected Gaia. She knew Gaia was only trying to protect her from further harm, but Gi wasn't sure being forced to forget everything would help much at all.

_I need to remember this in order to cope with it_, she thought, and she hoped Gaia heard her.

The fog stayed in place, but Gi fought to see through it.

The cell. That had been real. And the man that had come to visit her, though his face was just a smudge in Gi's mind now, and his voice was distorted. And the welts on her arms had been real, though they were gone now as well.

Gi lifted her arms to look at the skin, and she felt her muscles tighten. She felt blood well and run, and she felt the sting of open flesh, though she could see none of it.

Kwame reached over and took her hand, lowering her arm again until it sat flat against soft purple pillow.

She turned to him and whispered over the soft sobbing of Ma-Ti. "Do you remember anything?" she asked.

Kwame blinked at her. His eyes looked bottomless, and for a moment Gi was afraid to look into them.

"No," he said eventually. "I remember nothing."

Gi didn't remember _nothing_. And she was sure there were things Kwame could remember too, though she didn't dare try to challenge him.

She didn't remember enough to feel that it was over. She wanted to remember the end, the moment of relief and hope, but she couldn't.

Perhaps there hadn't been one.


	5. chapter four

**Notes:** D'oh, I keep forgetting to update this one until someone nudges me! Just a couple of chapters left after this one though.

* * *

**.chapter four**

Gi began to get a better picture of what had happened over the next few days, though it was with no help from Gaia.

Nobody talked about it. Nobody really talked at all. They slept a lot of the time. And despite being starving, and thin, and malnourished, each of them only picked at their food, which was a sudden bounty of unlimited choices.

Gi desperately wanted to talk about it, but she knew Gaia considered it detrimental to their recovery, and she knew the others certainly wanted to forget about it rather than talk about it at all.

Linka once asked Gi to check her back. She lifted her shirt, and Gi ran her eyes over the lumps of Linka's spine jutting against her skin.

"Are there marks?" Linka asked softly.

"No. Nothing."

Linka let her shirt drop, but she shrugged uncomfortably, and there were tears in her eyes when she spoke again. "I can feel blood sticking to my shirt," she whispered.

Gi huddled close to her, not sure what to say.

Ma-Ti walked with a limp, though Gi saw him trying to correct it now and then – the habit of an injury apparently outlasting the injury itself. He said nothing, but he was the only one vocal enough in his nightmares to wake everyone else.

He kept his eyes lowered or closed during the day, avoiding eye contact.

Kwame and Wheeler spoke quietly together, and Gi noticed them glancing desperately at one another, each of them seemingly afraid to let the other out of his sight.

She wondered if they had been kept together, instead of in isolation, and she was appalled with herself when she discovered feelings of jealousy.

She watched the way they clung to one another for comfort whenever night swept in, and she was certain they had, until recently, believed they only had one another.

She found herself forcing her way between them at night – only because they sandwiched her so closely in their efforts to keep one another close.

It reminded her that she was no longer alone.

* * *

Ma-Ti was the first to leave.

Gi took her anger out on Gaia. "You didn't even let us say goodbye!" she screamed. She tried to pummel Gaia with her fists, but her energy was already so sapped she could barely stand upright.

She sank to the floor and cried. "It's not _right_ for him to go home," she sobbed. "He should be here with us. You should let us remember. You should let us talk about it."

"Shut up, Gi," Wheeler snapped. "I don't want to talk about it."

Gaia looked from Gi to Wheeler. "Would you like to go home?" she asked softly.

Gi felt her heart plummet with fear.

"I am home," Wheeler answered icily. "You can't blanket us all with the same cure and expect it to work in every case, Gaia."

Kwame sank down beside Gi and took her hand. "He will be safe at home," he said, but his voice cracked and Gi knew he was afraid because Ma-Ti was no longer there.

They were all being separated again.

"Bring him back!" Gi demanded, tears streaming down her face. "Bring him back now."

"No," Gaia answered, and her voice was surprisingly sharp. "He's safe, Gi. I promise. But he needed to go home."

"I hate you!" Gi shouted at her. "You don't care about us! This is all your fault! They wanted you! They kept us there until they finally realised we weren't going to say anything helpful, and they they laid us all out in a line as bait for you!"

"And I came and got you," Gaia said gently, "as soon as I could."

"I hate you!" Gi screamed again, and this time she tasted blood as some old familiar wound opened again, her throat tearing with the effort of being heard.

Kwame kept his arms wrapped tightly around her. Gi could feel him shaking.

"I want to go home," Linka whispered suddenly. She looked up at Gaia, her face pale and her eyes brimming with tears. "I want to go home to my grandmother."

Wheeler looked at her in horror. "Babe..."

Linka bit down on her thumb and avoided his eyes. "Please, Gaia. I want to go home."

"I'll keep you safe, Linka," Gaia promised. "Just call if you need me."

Gi watched as Gaia pressed a gentle hand against Linka's sharp cheekbone.

She closed her eyes. She didn't want to watch Linka disappear.

The chance to say goodbye came and went, and Gi didn't say anything.

Wheeler sank to the floor beside Kwame, and Gi reached over and took his hand. "Please don't go," she said.

He shook his head, and Kwame breathed a sigh of relief against Gi's hair.

Wheeler pressed his face against the back of Gi's neck, and she felt his tears on her skin.

* * *

Wheeler tried to keep to himself the first night after Linka's departure. He disappeared in the direction of his old hut, leaving Kwame and Gi huddled together on the purple cushions in the Crystal Chamber.

"Let him go," Gi whispered to Kwame, though she ached for him to fight her and go and bring Wheeler back so the three of them could curl up together.

Kwame lay on his side, watching the door, his arms wrapped tightly around Gi. She could feel his muscles, coiled and tense, and knew he wouldn't get any sleep without Wheeler there. She bit down on her lip to stop herself from saying anything.

She wanted Wheeler to try and find a little niche of normality. If that meant sleeping in his old bed, alone, then she wouldn't argue against it.

She fell asleep with her face pressed against the warm curve of Kwame's neck, her fingers curled into his t-shirt.

She woke when Wheeler slid back into bed and pressed up against her back, his arm draping over both her and Kwame.

Kwame breathed a soft sigh of relief, and Gi felt herself relax with him, her muscles slowly easing, the tension that had come to her – even in sleep – finally fading away as she felt two warm bodies pressing in on either side of her.

* * *

"Were you alone?" Gi whispered to Kwame. "Or did they keep you and Wheeler together?"

The morning was soft and grey and cold. Gi could hear waves washing quietly in on the beach, but the usual chorus of birdsong was absent from the jungle outside.

Kwame blinked at her tiredly. "I do not want to talk about it, Gi."

"I do," she whispered fiercely. "And you and Wheeler are the only ones I have left, so what am I supposed to do now?"

Wheeler shifted behind her, his knees sliding into place behind hers, his arm heavy over her waist. He sighed deeply against the back of her neck.

She waited, but he didn't say anything. She wondered if he was still asleep.

"Just let it go," Kwame pleaded quietly. "It is over now."

"No it isn't," Gi said. She rubbed her temple. "It's still all in _here_. Gaia's just trying to smother it out..."

"Well, I want to let her," Kwame said defensively. He looked over the top of Gi's head.

"You and Wheeler were together the whole time," she said, sure about it now, and hating herself for being angry about it. "You can't team up on me."

Kwame shook his head tiredly and pressed his mouth softly against Gi's brow. "Let it go, Gi. Please."

She clenched her jaw and closed her eyes. She'd never been particularly good at ignoring things or letting things go.

She thought she'd feel better if she could just unravel things a little.

Kwame and Wheeler weren't going to give her a chance.

"There are three of us here," she said eventually. "You can't just split everything down the middle and expect everyone to be happy. Things have to be worked out differently now."

"Shut up, Gi," Wheeler said, wrapping his arm around her. "Just shut up and go back to sleep."

* * *

They tried to pretend things were normal.

Kwame disappeared in the direction of the greenhouses and Wheeler stationed himself in front of the television.

Gi took to standing on the shoreline, the glittering peaks of the Crystal Chamber visible at one end of the island and the small, squat greenhouses visible at the other.

She could feel herself being pulled in both directions, desperately afraid to be alone.

She couldn't stand it for long. She always ended up with one of them – Kwame in the stifling greenhouses, surrounded by the heavy perfume of flowers and compost. Or sitting with Wheeler under the ceiling fan, in front of the television, eyes glazed, hands curled against the couch cushions.

"This isn't working," she whispered.

* * *

Gi wasn't exactly sure how long it had only been the three of them. She wasn't sure how many days had passed since Linka's departure, but she was awake when Wheeler finally broke under his grief.

It was dark, and she could hear his breathing, ragged and uneven, and his hand was curled too tightly around her arm.

She rolled over and buried her face against his chest. She repeated what he and Kwame had told her time and time again. "It'll be okay."

"No it won't," Wheeler gasped, and Gi could feel his tears on her skin as he shuffled down in the bed, his breath hitting her brow. "I keep tryin' to get back to what it was, and it's never, never gonna be like that again."

Gi felt Kwame roll over behind her, his hand landing on her waist.

"Well, we'll find a new sort of normal then," Gi said desperately. "We'll find something that works for all three of us."

Wheeler's thumb traced over Gi's lip. "Don't leave me," he said tiredly.

"We won't," Gi promised.

When Wheeler kissed her for the first time, Gi's back was pressed hard against Kwame's chest and, in the dark, she wasn't sure which one of them had his hand over her breast.

* * *

In the light of day, they didn't speak about it. Not at first.

Kwame got up and fixed breakfast, and Gi followed him, somehow relieved to find slight pain in places other than her arms or the back of her head.

The ache of old injuries was still there. The new feeling of sore muscles and tender skin somehow reminded her of her own recovery.

Gi was sure it was backward, somehow, but she didn't want to think about it too long in case she convinced herself it was a bad idea.

She looked out at the ocean, over the rim of her coffee mug, suddenly longing for a swim.

The thought of salt water running into the wounds she could still feel – but no longer see – prevented her.  
She clunked her mug onto the counter, making both Kwame and Wheeler jump.

"I'm going to find Gaia," she said. She pretended not to see their guilty faces.

* * *

Gaia was on the east side of the island, on the rolling slopes of grass beyond the Crystal Chamber, tracing new wild-flower blossoms with her fingers.

Gi suddenly felt nervous, and it broke her heart. She didn't want to be nervous around Gaia.

"Hey," she said, and there was the slightest tremor in her voice.

Gaia smiled at her. "Hello, Gi."

Gi sank into the grass a little way off and watched Gaia curl her finger, beckoning a yellow flower up through the earth.

"How come we haven't seen you much lately?" she asked eventually.

Gaia glanced at her briefly, and tilted her head in acknowledgement. "I wasn't sure you wanted my company," she said.

"Why not?" Gi asked. "Of course we do." She swallowed sharply, tears suddenly stinging her eyes. "It doesn't feel normal without you around, and normal is all we really want."

Gaia didn't answer her. She spread her fingers and a flock of parrots flew up from the grass and into the jungle.

"Fine," Gi said after a moment, her tone angry. "Ignore us. Let us figure it out on our own. Stay here and build your stupid garden and your stupid birds."

Her anger would have left more of an impression if she hadn't burst into tears. She buried her face in her hands and sobbed.

Gaia sat quietly beside her.

It took Gi a long time to calm down enough to speak again. "Why didn't you come for us?" she asked, her voice a croak.

Gaia looked at her desperately, her eyes wide and sad. "I tried, Gi. I couldn't."

"Bullshit," Gi snapped. "You can do anything."

"I can't do 'anything'," Gaia countered gently. "Those cells were lined with material I couldn't get through. It was toxic."

Gi wiped her eyes and sniffed. "Do they still have our rings?"

"No," Gaia answered. "They're here. Do you want yours back?"

"No," Gi answered immediately. She felt a pang of guilt and sadness as she rejected what used to be such a huge, defining part of her.

Gaia turned her attention to the sea, which glittered far below them, against the craggy cliffs and exposed facets of crystal on this side of Hope Island.

Gi wiped her eyes on the back of her hand. "Do you look out for Linka and Ma-Ti?"

"Yes," Gaia answered softly. "They're safe."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure."

Gi sniffed again. "Good." She hugged her knees. "Will you ask them to come back?"

"I will wait for them to ask me," Gaia answered. "They know I'm watching."

"Do you think they will come back?"

Gaia didn't answer for a while. She spread a path of wild violets from her feet to the edge of the field. "I've come to realise," she said, "that I know less about human emotion than I originally thought I did."

She looked at Gi, and her expression was one of guilt and pity. "I'm sorry, Gi," she whispered. "I don't think I know how to fix this."

Gi sobbed and leaned against Gaia. "My arms still hurt," she confessed. "And I'm so scared all the time, Gaia. I don't know why. I know I'm safe here, but I can't sleep without Wheeler and Kwame, and things with them are so different now..."

Gaia held Gi tightly, and for a few minutes, Gi felt sheltered from the storm that had continued to rage around her long after rescue. Gaia's scent was of ocean and earth, and it was strange and comforting and familiar all at once.

"I don't think I can help you recover, Gi," Gaia said anxiously. "I tried to fix you physically, but I was scared to toy with things emotionally. I might do something wrong. And I've made so many mistakes already."

Gi shook her head, her breath coming in shudders. "No you haven't. I'm sorry. It's not your fault."

Gaia kissed the top of Gi's head, and Gi felt a surge of relief.

"I thought I'd lost you too," Gi admitted, her voice almost lost as she mumbled into Gaia's shoulder.

"No," Gaia answered. "But I don't understand as much as I thought I did, Gi. That scares me. I can see now how precarious everything was – how precarious it still is. I think I've done more damage than good to my Planeteers because I understand the Earth better than I understand its human inhabitants."

"You understand us," Gi argued. "You chose us. You brought us here because you knew that in all of us there's goodness. You knew we could find it in other people. And we have, haven't we?"

Gaia smiled at Gi's sudden show of passionate loyalty. "You have." She stroked Gi's cheek with her thumb. "But I think I took you all for granted, and when things went wrong I realised I had no idea of why everything had gone wrong."

"They're after you," Gi said, her voice still watery. "They were asking about you, and the rings..."

"I know."

"Could they find you?"

"Only if I leave Hope Island. Which I won't."

"What if they go after Linka and Ma-Ti?" Gi asked worriedly. "They both have families..." She blanched. "What if they go after my parents?"

Gaia's arm tightened slightly around Gi's slender shoulders. "Nothing like that will happen," she promised. "My eyes are open, Gi. I'm learning from my previous mistakes."

Gi breathed out slowly, watching the rolling blue ocean. "Do you think what Kwame, Wheeler and I are doing is wrong?" she asked after a moment.

"No," Gaia replied simply.

"You don't?"

"Do you?"

Gi shrugged. "I don't know. It doesn't feel wrong. But I don't think anyone else would approve of it."

"So don't tell anyone else," Gaia whispered. She smiled, and Gi thought the warmth of the sun seemed to increase a little.

Gi gave her a small smile back, but she felt nervous. "I don't know what's going to happen between the three of us."

"I'm sure it will be nothing to worry about," Gaia answered. "You're all trying to figure things out together."

Gi drew in a deep breath. "I should go and talk to them."

Gaia kissed the top of Gi's head again, and Gi got to her feet.

"Just..." she broke off, and looked down at Gaia anxiously. "We're not mad at you," she said. "Don't avoid us, Gaia."

"I won't," Gaia promised. She smiled back at Gi.

When Gi retraced her steps back toward the beach, a path of purple daisies raced ahead of her, their heads bobbing gently in the breeze.


	6. chapter five

**Note: **Just one chapter to go after this! Sorry I've been so slow at the updates. Thanks for the reviews! :)

* * *

**.chapter five**

Gi found she couldn't talk to Kwame and Wheeler about what had happened. Some sort of silent communication passed between them, as though the three of them had mutually agreed to simply not mention it.

In the daylight, things seemed easier. They convinced themselves there was nothing to talk about.

But, as evening closed in again, Gi could feel the tension knotting inside her muscles again. As the sun went down and the sky began to turn indigo, Gi forced herself to stay calm.

_Nothing is going to happen_, she told herself sternly. _Just stay calm. Breathe. Deep breaths. One, two, three..._

She wasn't worried about what would happen with the boys. She just wasn't sure what she _wanted_. All she really wanted was a good night's sleep, free of nightmares about the cell, free of memories of blood and rope and pain.

She didn't care _what_ they had to do in order to feel all right again. But she wondered if the boys were feeling uncomfortable about what had happened.

She suddenly found herself terrified that Wheeler and Kwame would want to sleep alone.

* * *

When Gi finally went in search of the boys, she found them in the common room.

The television was the only light, which she found both comforting and alarming. The irregular flicker of a crime drama played over the furniture and the floor.

Wheeler was already asleep, his head against Kwame's shoulder. Kwame's hand was on the inside of Wheeler's arm, and Gi wondered for a moment if they'd been holding hands before Wheeler had finally dozed off.

She squeezed herself onto Kwame's lap and put her head against his other shoulder. "Am I too heavy?" she whispered, her tone lilting with an attempt at humour.

Kwame smiled. "No."

Gi leaned against him and watched Wheeler breathe peacefully. Kwame's fingers twitched against the inside of Wheeler's wrist before he rested his cheek against the top of Gi's head.

Gi turned her eyes to the television, but had no interest in what was on. She suspected Kwame had only turned it on for the noise and the company. It was ridiculous, how comforting the murmur and presence of poorly-acted weeknight dramas could be.

"Kwame?" Gi whispered after a while.

"Hm?" He ran his hand up over her back.

"Are you and Wheeler all right?"

She felt him swallow.

"I think so," he answered carefully. "Are you all right?"

She nodded quickly. "Fine."

Kwame's fingers slipped under the hem of her shirt and stroked the small of her back. "Are you sure?"

Gi felt a wave of relief she hadn't been expecting at all. She closed her eyes and leaned into him. "Positive," she whispered.

They sat there in silence for a while, Kwame's hand sliding over the warm skin of Gi's back.

"Should we wake Wheeler and go to bed?" Gi asked after a while, feeling tired.

"Not yet." Kwame hesitated for a slight second, before his hand drifted up over her back and slid around her side. She leaned into him, turning slightly until his palm cupped her breast.

She buried her face against his neck and kept her eyes shut, ignoring the television, her skin tightening under the light stroke of his long dark fingers.

Gi suddenly wondered what Linka or Ma-Ti would think, if they walked through the door and found their friends entwined and touching so intimately. She wondered how it could possibly be explained. She wondered if Linka or Ma-Ti would require an explanation, or if they would understand things immediately.

Gi wasn't sure she understood this new relationship herself. She wasn't quite sure why or how things had developed to this point.

The movements between the three of them had been, so far, slow, deep, and confused, but nothing they had done had led to things getting worse.

Gi realised she felt safer, more content, more _home_ when she found herself thinking as a part of a third rather than as an individual struggling to get back to herself.

She realised she was starting to lose sight of the idea that she could get back to how she'd been before the cell. She'd been trying to hold onto the hope that things could be rebuilt in the same way they'd always been.

She found herself doubting that she would ever want to be alone again.

Kwame shifted beneath her and kissed the top of her head. "Tired?" he asked.

Gi nodded.

Kwame woke Wheeler by squeezing his hand.

Wheeler stirred slowly, mumbling a complaint.

"I'm tired," Gi said, poking him softly. "Take me to bed."

Wheeler dragged himself off the couch, pulling Kwame up after him. Gi slid from Kwame's lap and took his other hand, and they trudged toward the cushions they had been sleeping on, the pillows and blankets arranged like a nest on the floor of the Crystal Chamber.

"How come you're always in the middle?" Wheeler asked, curling around Gi as she sank down beside him.

"Because I would rather cuddle her than you," Kwame answered for him.

Gi laughed, and suddenly another layer of hurt and confusion was swept away. Wheeler grinned at her and shrugged.

"Whatever," he said. He curled around Gi and kissed the back of her neck. Kwame nuzzled under her chin.  
She supposed she should find it strange to have four hands on her. Part of her wanted to laugh at how utterly ridiculous it should have been.

But she closed her eyes and squirmed between Kwame and Wheeler instead. When she finally came, sweating and writhing between them, she found sleep followed as easily as it possibly could have.

* * *

Gi awoke to the smell of burning toast and the radio playing loudly in the kitchen. She didn't need to roll over to know Wheeler had, for once, been the first to get up.

She reached for Kwame and felt him beside her. "Go and stop him," she murmured. "He'll burn the cornflakes, if we let him go on much longer."

Kwame laughed, and Gi smiled. It was easy to laugh in the mornings. It was only when the day wore on and got bogged down in memories and shadows and fear – that was when it got difficult.

Kwame rolled over and kissed her. "Let him make breakfast," he murmured. "He does not offer very often."

"That's true." Gi slid her leg over Kwame's hip. "How come he's awake first?" She blinked her eyes open to find Kwame watching her.

He shrugged. "He went to sleep early." He traced his finger around the edge of Gi's ear.

"Hey, lovebirds," Wheeler's voice said, interrupting them. "Get up and come and check out the spread I've got on the table."

Gi lifted her head and smiled at him. "No breakfast in bed?"

"Crumbs," Wheeler dismissed. "It's bad enough having sand everywhere." He took Gi's hand and hauled her up before he feigned a look of anger in Kwame's direction. "Taking advantage of her while I'm not here," he said. "Not cool, man."

Kwame pulled his shirt on. "You snooze you lose, my friend."

Wheeler laughed, and tugged Gi after him.

She was smiling widely. Today was going to be a good day.

* * *

With the sun, and the blue sky and the warmth and light of the passing days, the three of them began to find it easier to separate. Gi finally began to swim again, plunging under waves and floating on her back in the bay, no longer terrified when she failed to lock sight onto Kwame or Wheeler.

Sometimes her arms still hurt. She kept her strokes short and felt the muscles in her shoulders protest.

It was a gradual thing. Nightfall still saw them all crawl into the same bed, though Gi had begun to wonder if now it was less due to fear than it was due to sex.

She decided she didn't care if it was. Had one of the boys suddenly decided to leave and sleep alone, she knew she'd be heartbroken.

* * *

Gi was confused when she woke and it was dark. She hadn't woken during the night for weeks. For a moment she feared she had somehow been taken again; that her memories would be patchy and the room would be small and dark and unfamiliar...

But no. She was still in the Crystal Chamber, in the bed she'd been sharing with Wheeler and Kwame since their return to Hope Island.

Wheeler was breathing heavily beside her, and when she reached out to touch him, she could feel sweat on his skin.

"What's wrong?" she whispered.

He rubbed his face. She could see him frowning in the shadowy moonlight that spilled through the Chamber in beams. "Nightmare," he muttered.

Her heart sank. "Really?"

He nodded and closed his eyes. Gi rolled over and wrapped her arms around him, knowing Kwame would eventually roll over as well and curl around them both, whether he was awake or not.

"Do you think they'll ever try to get hold of Gaia again?" Wheeler asked huskily.

Gi bit her lip. "I dunno."

Wheeler's fingers tightened, digging into Gi's flesh. "How the hell do we know they didn't take us straight from Hope Island in the first place? The last thing I can remember is India... Maybe we made it home and –"

"I don't think so," Gi interrupted softly. "I think I can remember the geo-cruiser crashing somewhere. And I believe Gaia when she says we're safe here."

Wheeler sighed heavily.

Despite Gaia's promises to Gi, they never saw her much. She returned to the Crystal Chamber very rarely, and Gi suspected most of the time it was when the former Planeteers were asleep. More than once she'd rolled over and sensed Gaia's presence there somewhere.

"I miss the way things used to be," Wheeler whispered.

"Me too." Gi kissed his cheek. "Once Linka and Ma-Ti come back, it'll be okay again."

Wheeler scoffed. "They ain't comin' back, Gi."

She stiffened. "Yes they are."

He didn't argue with her, but he didn't try to comfort her, either. She lay her head down on his chest and listened to his heart beat, trying to believe he was wrong, and that Ma-Ti and Linka would come back and somehow everything would go back to the way it used to be.

"What do you think will happen to the three of us if they come back?" Wheeler asked after a while.

"I don't know," Gi muttered. "What do you want?"

Wheeler shrugged beneath her, and squeezed her tightly to him. "Nothin'. I dunno."

Somehow she felt relieved.

She didn't want to lose the new relationship they'd forged. She suddenly wondered if gaining Linka and Ma-Ti back meant she'd have to give up what she had with Kwame and Wheeler.

"You'd just try to sleep with all of us, wouldn't you?" she asked after a moment.

Wheeler gave a throaty laugh and ran his hand down her back.

* * *

Kwame was worse than Wheeler was when it came to taking up the bed. He would roll over and burrow up against Gi's back. His arms would drape themselves across both Wheeler and Gi. Whenever they rolled over, Kwame rolled over.

When Gi woke up one night to find Kwame missing, she wanted to panic.

Her first reaction was to wake Wheeler, but as she reached over to shake him, something inside her pulled tight, and for some reason it occurred to her to check the Crystal Vision first.

She bit her lip. She hadn't checked the Crystal Vision screens since before everything had happened.

'Everything' was the only way she could think of it.

She slid out of bed, wrapping a blanket around herself and padding in bare feet across the smooth floor. The island was quiet and dark.

Kwame sat in front of the Crystal Vision screens, wrapped in a blanket much like Gi.

Gi caught sight of Ma-Ti's face on the screen, and she froze. "What are you doing?"

Kwame turned and saw her. He gave her a sad smile. "Just watching," he said quietly.

Gi approached him cautiously, her eyes on the screen.

Ma-Ti looked thin, but he was smiling. Gi could feel her heart beating furiously.

There was no sound, but she could see he was happy. Happy and, perhaps, a little wistful. Gi wondered if she was simply imagining it.

She wanted him to be wistful for Hope Island. Suddenly she wanted, more than anything, for Ma-Ti and Linka to come back.

They didn't have to be Planeteers again. She just wanted them together.

The screen changed, and Gi gasped when Linka appeared on the screen. She was in bed, but awake, her face turned to the faint rays of the sun coming through her window.

Like Ma-Ti, she looked thin, and her hair was slightly darker than Gi remembered it.

"What are you doing?" Wheeler's voice was harsh and loud, and Gi and Kwame both jumped.

"Just watching," Kwame said gently. "I just... I woke up." He looked guilty. "I wanted to see them."

Wheeler's face softened, but his brow creased with pain when he saw Linka on the screen. "Are they all right?"

Gi leaned against Wheeler's arm once he'd come close. "They look fine," she said. She bit her lip and watched as Linka kicked the blankets on her bed back and sat on the edge of the mattress, rubbing her hands over her face.

Gi felt Wheeler's muscles tighten.

The screen split, and Ma-Ti appeared as well. He was stirring something in a bowl, gazing up at the sky, apparently daydreaming.

"They look happy," Kwame whispered.

Gi clung to his hand. "Do you think they're happier than us?"

"Are we happy?" Wheeler asked grumpily.

"Most of the time," Gi said. "I was happy today."

"Me too," Kwame said, looking at Wheeler out of the corner of his eye.

"Okay," Wheeler relented. "I guess I'm happy most of the time as well."

"We don't know what they're like when they're trying to sleep," Gi said. "I mean... I hope they're okay. They still look kind of thin, don't you think?"

"She looks pale," Wheeler said, gazing at Linka.

"Ma-Ti looks tired," Kwame said.

Gi sighed and squeezed her hands against Kwame's and Wheeler's. "I guess they're doing just like us."

"I don't see two guys in bed with Linka," Wheeler said, raising his eyebrow.

Gi smacked his arm.

* * *

"I thought Gaia promised you she'd be around more," Wheeler said, his mouth full of cereal.

"She did," Gi said irritably. "Weeks ago. I guess she lied."

"She has been around more," Kwame said. "At night."

"Hey, yeah," Wheeler said suddenly. "I've seen her too. She's scared hell out of me sometimes."

"Maybe I should have clarified we want her around to _talk_ to us," Gi muttered.

Kwame kissed the top of her head. "We should go and find her today."

"Yeah," Wheeler agreed. "There are things we gotta talk about."

* * *

Gaia wasn't hard to find. She was in the meadow again. Grass with full heads of grain rippled and bobbed in the breeze.

She didn't appear surprised to see them. "Hello, Planeteers."

Gi cringed at the word. She wasn't a Planeteer any more. She doubted she ever would be again.

"We would like to talk about Linka and Ma-Ti," Kwame said.

Gaia stood up and smiled, though her brow was marked with slight concern. "What about them?"

"We want you to ask 'em to come back," Wheeler said flatly.

Gaia looked at the three of them carefully. "I told them they could ask me, when they were ready," she said. "They have not asked."

"Maybe they're waiting for you," Gi said hopefully. "Maybe they just don't know they're ready yet."

Gaia tilted her head slightly. "And the three of you are ready for them to come back?"

"Yes," Kwame and Wheeler said together, a little impatiently.

Gi felt the word freeze in her throat. She clung to both boys tightly.

"Gi?" Gaia asked gently.

Gi bit her lip and glanced to Wheeler, then Kwame. "I want them back," she said cautiously. "I just don't want things to change here."

She felt Wheeler's fingers twitch.

"I'm happy with things the way they are," Gi said desperately. "But I do want them back. I want Linka back and I want Ma-Ti back, but I don't want to lose you..." She looked up at Kwame and Wheeler desperately.

They both looked surprised.

"Gi," Kwame said gently, "things between us will not magically change when Linka and Ma-Ti arrive."

"It might change," Gi argued. "They've got no idea how much our relationship has changed. Don't you think they'll find it... weird?"

"Who cares?" Wheeler asked. "You think they just went home and lived normal lives, Gi?"

"I don't think either of them started a polygamous relationship," Gi said.

"A what?"

Kwame squeezed her hand. "Gi," he said gently, "would you rather they never came back, just to keep what we have safe from any questioning?"

"No," Gi said slowly. "Of course not."

"Let 'em question it," Wheeler said. "I don't care. I don't think they're in any position to judge."

Gaia looked amused, but the crease of concern still marked her brow. "Are you ready to be Planeteers again?"

"No," Kwame said firmly. "But we want to be together."

"Things just work better when we're together," Wheeler said, and he squeezed Gi's hand.

Gi smiled at Gaia and shrugged helplessly. "Three is better than one," she said. "Five has to be better than three."

"That's my girl," Wheeler said, slinging his arm around her shoulders. He caught Kwame's eye and offered a swift correction, grinning as he did so. "Our," he said. "Our girl."


	7. chapter six

**Note: **And it's finished! Thank you for all the comments, and I would just like to remind everyone that this story has some beautiful fan art to accompany it - the link is in my profile. :)

* * *

**.epilogue**

"What if they don't approve?" Gi asked nervously. "We're not going to... You know... break up, are we?"

"_That's_ what you're worried about?" Wheeler asked.

"Yes," Gi snapped. "You think Ma-Ti and Linka are going to take it well? 'Oh, by the way, after you guys left, the three of us started fucking each other.'"

Wheeler grinned at her. "Tell them like that. Please. I want to see Linka's face."

Gi put her hands on her hips. "Wheeler..."

He held his hands up. "I'm not gonna say anything," he said. "You and Kwame can deal with it."

"Why us?" Kwame asked indignantly.

"They're coming," Gi gasped suddenly, clutching his arm. "Look."

Purple haze was beginning to gather at the far end of the beach.

"Gi," Wheeler said quickly, "you've got nothin' to worry about. This ain't gonna be like it was the first time we were all put on this island together. Things have changed."

"And are things going to change again?" Gi asked, keeping her eyes on the thickening smoke by the water's edge.

"No," Kwame said firmly. "Gi, perhaps we will cross that bridge when we need to. Yes?"

"Definitely," Wheeler breathed. "And you never know, they might want to join in."

"In your dreams," Gi muttered. She smirked. "And I _know_ you've been dreaming about it."

"I won't deny it," Wheeler said. He gave an excited yelp as Ma-Ti and Linka both finally became visible at the end of the beach. "Come on!"

The three of them raced one another along the sand.

Gi wasn't too concerned that she'd lose either of them. They were gaining two members of their family back.

She could not – would not – ever consider that to be a bad thing.

She had just become so very used to three, instead of five.

She supposed they were all just going to have to adapt. Again.


End file.
